A baffle includes a carrier and/or fixation element and one or more thermally expandable materials designed for positioning in cavities of, for instance, automotive or aerospace beans, pillars, rails, doors, etc. to provide acoustic dampening, sealing, and/or structural reinforcement. The carrier is generally formed from plastic or metal surrounded with the expandable material. When inserted into the cavity and by the action of the heat applied in electrophoresis baking, the baffle material expands to seal the cavity and or bond the carrier to the member.
Such baffles are formed using various techniques. These techniques include overmolding the foamable material onto the carrier or assembling the separately produced foamable material and carrier using mechanical fasteners or adhesives. While each of these techniques may produce a suitable baffle, these techniques suffer from various drawbacks including high tooling costs, material shrinkage during the baking process, lack of support and sagging, etc.
JP 2004255863 discloses the extrusion of a foamed sheet and of a support layer which is overlaid in a molten state to form a planar laminate. The laminate is punched into a prescribed shape by a punching device and later a clip is bonded to the punched member. The disadvantages of this process are that several steps are needed to produce the member, that no complex shapes can be created and that a large amount of scrap is produced, this scrap is very difficult to recycle due to its two component nature.